Greenpeace, Top Users Ask Pinterest to Go Green on Oversized Pinboards at Company HQ

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Media release - May 6, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO, May 6, 2014 — Greenpeace activists and influential users of Pinterest, the social network and visual search tool, asked Pinterest employees to create a greener internet by becoming the next tech company to power its platform with renewable energy at a demonstration outside of the company’s headquarters this morning.

The activists set up two 13’ tall, 15’ wide “pinboards” outside of the Pinterest office in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco, each featuring real-life “pins” with the message “Make Our Pins Green”. Designers, photographers and other influential Pinterest users who are partnering with Greenpeace’s #clickclean campaign for a green internet designed many of the pins on the boards.

“As a mom of three boys who are very technology savvy, paired with my role in social media with Pinterest an integral part of what I use every day, it would great to be positively part of helping Pinterest’s platform go green,” saidPaulaCoop McCrory, a visual artist with over 4 million followers on Pinterest. “Being environmentally friendly is important to me and my family. I'd love to be able to say that Pinterest is now going green, too.'”

The activity featured pins designed by eight Pinterest users who have close to five million followers combined.

Activists also set up a solar-powered café outside the headquarters in a small trailer, painted with a green Pinterest logo and topped with functioning solar panels. They offered Pinterest employees cupcakes, also iced with a green pinterest logo, and coffee, kept warm by burners drawing electricity from the solar panels.

Pinterest is growing fast, with an estimated 70 million users who have created750 million boards and 30 billion pins. [1] That data growth requires increasing amount of electricity to power it, and Pinterest has yet to make a commitment to power its growing energy footprint with renewable energy, or to share details about the size of its energy footprint. Apple, Facebook and Google have each committed to powering their internet operations with 100 % renewable energy, according to a report Greenpeace released last month, “Clicking Clean: How Companies are Creating the Green Internet.” [2] Other fast-growing internet companies like Box and Salesforce have also committed to 100 % renewable energy.

“Pinterest is growing fast, and so is its energy use” said Greenpeace Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook.“Now is the right time for Pinterest to become the next leader of a green internet, by committing to power all of our pins and pinboards with 100 % renewable energy.”

The Clicking Clean report detailed how the internet’s energy footprint is growing rapidly, and how modern, fast-growing companies like Pinterest risk tying the new digital economy to old, polluting forms of energy that cause global warming if they do not shift toward renewable energy.

Pinterest uses Amazon Web Services to power the data behind its platform.Amazon Web Services’ data centers are powered by only 15 % renewable energy – the rest of its electricity comes from coal, gas and nuclear power, according to the report.

Greenpeace is pushing all major internet companies to go green, with a focus on social media in its #clickclean campaign. Last month, Greenpeace activists unveiled a new green bird logo for Twitter outside the company’s San Francisco headquarters, and urged the company to commit to 100 % renewable energy.

Want to learn more about tax-deductible giving, donating stock and estate planning? Visit Greenpeace Fund, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) charitable entity created to increase public awareness and understanding of environmental issues through research, the media and educational programs.